Shop Till You Drop
by forensicsfan
Summary: COMPLETE Nick and Sara get called out to a 419 in the last place you'd want to be the day after Thanksgiving - the mall.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, I didn't create them, and I don't profit from them, but as always, if given the opportunity, coffee would be on me if George and Jorja could find the time.

**Author's Note:** I've always thought that people who get up before dawn the day after Thanksgiving to save a few dollars on socks are just plain nuts, so this is dedicated to all of those folks, and I'm lifting my peppermint mocha frappucino in honor of homemade gifts…while I let it ice my hand that's sore from all that knitting I've been doing lately.

* * *

Nick and Sara were finishing up the paperwork on a case they'd worked earlier that evening. What had appeared at first to be a possible homicide had ended up being an unintentional suicide from an allergic reaction to tofurkey. Apparently, the victim wasn't aware that tofu contained soy, something that he was deathly allergic to. 

"You know, for someone who has an allergy to soy, you'd think they'd know that tofu is soybean curd." Sara just shook her head incredulously.

"Well, his blood alcohol content was pretty high, maybe he didn't realize what he was eating. Maybe he thought he was eating turkey; don't they say that tofu takes on the flavor of whatever you cook it in?" Nick had been reading up on vegetarian recipes as he tried to work up his courage to ask Sara on a date.

"Well he should have gotten himself a designated eater then." Sara let out a chuckle in spite of the ridiculous nature of the situation. "You know, I may be a vegetarian, but even I won't eat a tofurkey for Thanksgiving."

"You had Chilean Sea Bass." Nick commented without looking up.

"How did you know that?" Sara looked at him a bit oddly.

He tried to hide his embarrassed smile by smirking. "Uh, you don't eat meat, but you do eat fish, and I know that you like Chilean Sea Bass."

"Ok, smarty pants, what did I have for dessert?" She smirked back at him, charmed that he even noticed what she'd had to eat on their short dinner break in between waiting for samples to be verified.

"You didn't." He glanced up and winked. "But I think that there are a couple of pieces of pumpkin pie in the fridge."

She was about to say something when Grissom breezed into the break room. "Nick, Sara, you've got a 419 at the Rodeo Discount Mall on East Charleston Boulevard."

Sara let out an audible groan as she glanced at the clock and noticed that it was a little after six in the morning.

Nick and Grissom both looked at her quizzically.

It wasn't that she didn't mind working a holiday, or even putting in overtime for that matter, it was just that the idea of having to go near a mall the morning of the day after Thanksgiving for any reason made her feel nauseous.

"Is there something that you'd like to share, Sara?" Grissom arched a brow and his tone bordered on impatience at her reluctance to head towards the door.

She stood up, glad to have the chance to step away from the paperwork and faced Nick and Grissom. "It's the day after Thanksgiving."

Grissom shrugged. "So."

Nick just let out a chuckle. "Sara, we don't have to worry about parking and we can pretty much go to the front of the line."

She let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine."

"Did I miss something?" Grissom looked at the pair quizzically as he watched them head for the doorway.

Nick glanced back and tried to restrain an amused smile. "Biggest shopping day of the year." With that he trailed after Sara down the hallway towards the front entrance and her Denali.

When they arrived on scene, it was utter chaos. Getting the Denali to the curb was no problem, getting to the door was something entirely different. It seemed that every resident of Las Vegas had converged on the discount mall in search of the best deals money could buy and they regarded everyone, badge or no badge, as competition for getting inside. It wasn't until several extra patrol cars were brought in that the crowd finally began to be somewhat subdued, but they weren't about to budge from their places in line.

Brass wore a sardonic grin as Nick and Sara approached. "I see Gil let you have this one." His comment and his tone implied that Grissom was fully aware of what day of the year it was and that he would rather do paperwork the rest of shift than go anywhere near a mall.

"It appears that way." Sara's tone was dry as she and Nick followed Brass towards the entrance to one of the anchor stores of the mall.

The crowd was loudly vocalizing their irritation with the delay getting into the store and regarded the CSIs with their metallic cases with suspicion.

"What do we have, Jim?" Nick asked curiously, trying to see if they'd be pulling a double or if he might have time to ask Sara to breakfast.

"At first blush, it looks like some of our crowd tried to jump the line and we got a little stampede. There's one fatality and six others injured, three of which are insisting on staying to shop." Brass just shook his head as they approached the body, which was just inside the doorway where David the assistant coroner was checking her liver temperature.

"What do we have, David?" Nick asked as the coroner stood up.

"I'd say she's been dead less than an hour, I'll know more once we get her back to the morgue. Cause of death most likely asphyxia from being pressed against the door by the crowd." He gestured towards the crowd on the other side of the doors. "I'd sure hate to get that mob angry."

Brass glanced back at a few irate shoppers near the front of the line. "I guess this time it doesn't pay to be the early bird."

Sara slipped on a pair of latex gloves and glanced down at the body of what appeared to be an otherwise healthy thirty-something woman. "Brings a whole new meaning to shop till you drop."

"I've never understood why people are willing to get up early just to save a few bucks." Nick commented as he snapped pictures of the scene.

Sara crouched down next to the body and furrowed her brow as she noticed something that seemed out of place as she rolled it over slightly and examined it more closely. "Hey, Nick."

He glanced at her expectantly. "Yeah?" Her expression compelled him to crouch down next to her as she pointed at something.

"What does that look like to you?" Sara glanced over at him with a look that said she already knew the answer.

He gave her a confirming glance as he noticed the puncture wound just under the woman's shoulder blade as well as the pool of blood that her body had covered. "I'd say it looks like murder."


	2. Chapter 2

No sooner had Nick and Sara began processing the scene than the media began showing up in droves, satellite trucks and reporters trying to get the scoop on what they were referring to as the Rodeo Mall Stampede. Apparently, the arrival of a scandal-ridden senator at the Bellagio wasn't big enough news.

Nick glanced over at Sara as she was carefully dusting the outside of the door to the store for prints. "I swear they must be part vulture and part bloodhound." He gestured to the half dozen reporters primping for an on camera commentary while the camera crews panned the crowd for background shots.

"Piranha is more like it." Sara was always disgusted by how the media not only jumped on someone else's tragedy, they did it all in the name of the First Amendment and journalism. Why they couldn't profile the local animal shelter or food bank at this time of year was beyond her.

Nick let out a wry chuckle and shook his head. "You know what they say; if it bleeds it leads." He knew they most likely weren't going to find much in the way of useable evidence at the scene, not with the amount of people that had been pressed up against the door. The real story was going to most likely come from the video surveillance footage that Brass was in the process of retrieving from store security.

"You know it seems to me that they might try and report on good news once in a while." Her thoughts seemed to be gathering steam as she continued. "I mean the way they report it, you'd think that it wasn't safe to leave your house." She let out a frustrated sigh and then stopped to check her progress on printing the glass door. "You know this is all one big smudge."

Nick gave her an apologetic smile. "It's just a door, Sara." He didn't like seeing her so frustrated and part of him wondered if it had more to do with the fact that she never seemed to go anywhere or spend any time with anyone special on holidays than the fact that the door didn't want to yield any useable prints. He considered again that he needed to ask her on a date, however, asking her out at a crime scene just didn't seem like quite the right time.

She furrowed her brow. "I seem to recall that you said that about a radiator cap once." Just once she'd like to have a murder case that was straight forward and full of evidence.

"I did, but even then you got your guy without the radiator cap." He smiled at her and gestured towards the inside of the store. "If you think you're about done there, I'm gonna go get those tapes from Brass and we can get out of here."

She didn't say anything in return; she was still staring closely at the glass door hoping against hope that she could isolate one good print. A radiator cap was one thing, but a flat surface like this glass door was completely another. She wasn't backing down from the challenge.

Nick patted her on the shoulder and stood up; going off in search of Brass who he hoped had possession of the video surveillance tapes. He didn't know about Sara, but after working an entire shift and then processing this scene, he needed a break. Maybe he could get that breakfast date in with Sara yet; that is if he could muster the courage to let her know he wanted it to be a date. He was fairly certain that she wouldn't mind stopping for something to eat on the way back to the lab.

A short time later, Nick returned to the front of the store with two video surveillance tapes in hand. Sara was still studying the door, ignoring nasty comments being volleyed by shoppers who were still waiting in line in hopes that they might yet get a killer deal inside the store, just not the sort of deal that the still unidentified victim had.

Nick crouched down next to Sara and couldn't help but smile as he watched her tape lift a partial print. "Got something?"

She nodded. "I think so." She gestured towards her open kit. "I've lifted three partials and part of what I think might be the heel of someone's hand."

"I talked to Brass. He said that the security guards didn't see anything out of the ordinary until our vic jumped to the front of the line. Apparently, the witnesses all say the same thing." He watched as she carefully taped the lifted print down on a card.

Sara didn't look up as she continued looking for any other prints that might be helpful. "Doesn't mean they saw what really happened." She pursed her lips together as she realized that she wasn't going to get anything else off of the door.

"Hungry?" He could tell that if she didn't stop to eat, they'd both be running on fumes by the time they got away from the lab to go to their respective homes. Maybe over breakfast he could test the waters to see if she might be receptive to a date. Of course the risk that it posed to their friendship was considerable and that's probably why he hadn't asked her out as yet.

The faintest hint of a smile began to tug at her lips. "Yeah."

"How about breakfast and a movie then?" He smirked at her as he held up the video surveillance tapes.

She let out a soft chuckle and stowed the last print card in her kit. "That's an offer I can't refuse." There was a part of her that wished that he wasn't just making a witty comment and that he actually wanted to ask her out. She had thought about it many times over the last four and half years since she'd met him, but they had become such fast friends when she'd come to Vegas and real friends were in such short supply that she wasn't sure she wanted to risk it. Having Grissom reject her was bad enough, she didn't know what she'd do if she took the risk and Nick rejected her too.

"You drive, I'll buy." Nick grinned at her as he stood up.

Sara couldn't help but smile. "Now this offer's getting better and better." She always enjoyed flirting with Nick and now was no exception, it made doing the job easier and it gave her ego a huge boost that someone as charming and good looking as Nick even took the time to flirt with her.

Nick held up the pair of surveillance tapes and winked. "Even better, it's a double feature."


	3. Chapter 3

Nick was disappointed to see the diner so crowded; it would mean that he and Sara would have to get their food to go. That was good for the case, but it also meant he wasn't going to be able to test the waters about that date he wanted to take her on.

On the way back out to the Denali, Sara noticed Nick's slightly dejected expression. She elbowed him and smirked. "Why the long face?" Of all of the people that she worked with, Nick had the tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve. She always seemed to be able to tell when something was bothering him.

He smiled at her, not wanting to really tell her the truth. "I was just sort of looking forward to having a little break." It was true; he'd get to the part about asking her on a date another time.

"Slacker." She grinned at him as they climbed into the truck.

He let out a soft chuckle and grinned back.

They took all of five minutes to gulp their food down once they'd arrived back at the lab and then they descended on the AV lab to begin analyzing the surveillance footage. As they watched the first video, it revealed nothing beside the fact that their victim had cut in line and had triggered a stampede towards the door. The second tape, however, was shot from a slightly different angle and as they watched, something became abundantly clear.

"We have another crime scene." Sara muttered under her breath.

"So whoever stabbed her didn't do it because she cut in line, although the way those people were acting earlier, it would have been a good motive." Nick replied rewinding the tape to see if they could catch any more details than they'd gotten the first time.

"That would explain why we didn't find any ID or credit cards on the body." Sara began to think out loud.

"Yeah, I wondered about that. What kind of woman goes to the mall the day after Thanksgiving without her purse?" He glanced over at Sara and smirked. "Or in your case, her crime scene kit."

Sara swatted at him and let out a soft laugh.

Nick leaned back in the chair he sat in. "I think maybe we need to go back to the mall and get a few more security tapes, see if we can spot the primary crime scene."

Sara let out a groan. "Maybe we should wear flack jackets this time."

"Hey, it's not that bad." Nick teased. "I thought you liked the mall." He knew she must shop, he'd seen her wear several new outfits lately and he had to admit that they brought her eyes out and did amazing things for her figure. Of course, he had to also admit to himself that it wouldn't matter what she was wearing, he'd always thought she was attractive.

"I shop." Sara felt embarrassed for some reason. "I just don't like large insane crowds." She reasoned that she'd spent more than enough time in clothing stores lately. She'd been trying to liven up her wardrobe a little bit to see if she could get the attention of the dense man sitting next to her. So far it hadn't worked; he seemed oblivious. Although, he did seem to notice that she'd gone shopping so he must have at least noticed the new clothes.

"You want me to drive this time?" He studied her a bit too intently. Why he hadn't noticed that her eyes were the exact shade of her shirt before this moment he wasn't sure.

Sara looked at him a bit quizzically. The way he was looking at her was making her feel self conscious. "What?"

He looked sheepish at being caught staring. "Uh, your shirt is the same color as your eyes." He hoped that he wasn't getting himself into hot water by saying something; he just didn't know what else to say that would have been plausible.

"Oh." Sara looked surprised that he even noticed her eyes. "You drive." The last thing she wanted to do was focus on her appearance. As much as she had found herself becoming more and more attracted to Nick, she really wasn't sure what she would do if he actually felt the same way.

"Ok." He grinned at her and then gestured towards the doorway. "After you."

Sara stood and then stopped, looking over at Nick. "We should probably get a warrant for those tapes."

"Yeah." Nick found himself staring at her again and quickly cleared his throat and glanced away. "I'll just give Brass a quick call and he can meet us at the mall."

"Sure." Sara felt like she sounded sixteen. Why she was feeling a flutter of butterflies in her stomach all of a sudden she wasn't completely sure and from her estimation Nick seemed to be a little flustered too. "I'll meet you in the parking lot." Fresh air was exactly what she needed at that moment. She needed to remain calm and professional and refrain from swooning, which is what she'd felt on the verge of in the AV lab.

Nick quickly punched in Brass' number and filled him in on what they'd found. He let out a chuckle as Brass informed him that he'd anticipated that and had a warrant in hand and would meet them back at the mall. Nick ended the call and trudged out to the parking lot to find Sara pacing in front of his Denali. He pursed his lips, hoping that he hadn't offended her by noticing her eyes. That wasn't exactly the way he'd pictured testing the waters.

Sara glanced up as he approached and hoped that her face didn't belie the nerves that were forming again in the pit of her stomach.

Nick didn't say anything about her behavior as he climbed behind the wheel and it wasn't until he had pulled out into traffic that he really had any clue that maybe just maybe Sara might be open to that date.

"Why were you looking at my eyes?" The words were out of Sara's mouth before she could stop them. Curiosity had taken over and there was apparently nothing she could do to stop it. She needed to know if there was some chance that maybe Nick might actually see her as something other than a friend and a coworker. She wasn't going to come out and say it, she was going to do her best to read between the lines; that is if she could control her tongue.

Nick felt a sudden flip in the pit of his stomach. He had hoped she wasn't offended, but apparently she was. He knew he was just going to have to face the music so he said the first thing that came to his mind. "Because they're pretty." It was the truth, she had beautiful eyes; it was just that his statement fell far short of the whole truth.

Sara's eyebrows shot up in surprise and she had difficulty restraining the smile that threatened to take over her face. "Oh." She was pleased. Surprised, but pleased.

Nick caught her smile out of the corner of his eye and felt a smile of his own forming. Yes, the waters definitely seemed to be warming. The question was, just when was the time to jump in with both feet?


	4. Chapter 4

Brass was waiting just outside the store where their victim had died when Nick and Sara arrived. His smile was decidedly wry. "I see you kids just can't stay away from the mall today."

"She made me come." Nick quipped smirking at Sara.

She rolled her eyes, trying to hold back a smile. "Somebody has to carry the packages."

"Right." Brass turned and headed into the store with the two CSIs trailing behind him. "I've contacted the head of security for the mall and they're gathering the security tapes for the last twenty-four hours to see if we can find out where our victim came from."

Nick kept stealing glances at Sara as they walked with Brass. "I was thinking that since she was on foot we might look for abandoned vehicles."

Brass glanced back at him and smirked. "Well today that's going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but we'll tell the security guys to keep their eyes out."

Nick just nodded and noticed Sara's furrowed brow and wondered what she was thinking.

She didn't keep it a mystery for long. "Brass, have we checked with the stores in the mall to see if any of their employees failed to show up for work?" It had occurred to her that other than the rabid shoppers waiting in line outside the stores that morning, the only other people crazy enough to go near a mall on a day like today were the people that worked in them.

Brass just shook his head. "Not yet."

"But if she was going to work, why didn't she have her purse with her?" Nick reasoned. Sara's theory was good, but the missing identification was something that they still had no answer for. For all they knew, she could have been mugged on her way to wait in line and stumbled towards the crowd in an attempt to get help.

"Maybe she got to work, but went back to retrieve something from her car." Sara shrugged her shoulders.

They approached the mall security office and waited outside while Brass showed the head of security the warrant.

Bud Redmond, the head of mall security for the Rodeo Discount Mall, was in his mid-forties with a slight paunch in his gut and a handlebar mustache hovering above his upper lip. He resembled a cowboy from the old west more than a security guard. "Captain Brass, we sort of anticipated this after earlier this morning. I've got John in there burning copies of the tapes as we speak. Should be done in another twenty minutes or so." He glanced over at Nick and Sara and then back at Brass. "I can give you all a coupon for a free coffee at one of the stores in the food court if you want to come back."

Brass glanced at Nick and Sara and shrugged. He knew that he they had the authority to seize the tapes right then, but he always favored letting people work with him. Nick shrugged back. Brass turned towards Bud and nodded. "We'll come back." Brass held a palm up and shook his head as Bud reached for the coupons. "No need for the coupons."

As the trio left the security office, Brass gestured down the middle of the crowded mall. "We may as well start canvassing the stores to work your theory out Sara."

Nick furrowed his brow. "Don't you think we could narrow down our scope by reviewing the tapes first?"

Sara considered Nick's words. "You have a point. There are at least a hundred stores in here and it's the busiest shopping day of the year. But if we started in the general vicinity of where she died, we could narrow it down somewhat."

"I always did like you, Sidle." Brass didn't hand out compliments often, but when he did they were usually very sincere, even if his tone of voice was slightly acerbic.

Nick grinned at her, having a hard time hiding his admiration for her skills as an investigator, and just his admiration for her in general. "Me too."

They fanned out and began to canvass the stores that were located near where the victim had died hoping to rule them out one by one, but then they developed another problem. Apparently, working the day after Thanksgiving wasn't the most popular thing among mall employees, because almost all of the stores they checked said that they had employees that were scheduled to work that didn't show up.

Nick and Sara met up in the middle of the mall and Sara looked frustrated. "I think I'm liking your idea more and more about watching the tapes first." She shook her head. "Doesn't anyone have a work ethic anymore?"

"Yeah, I got the same thing. I have a feeling that a lot of people called in sick today." Nick was frustrated at the dead end they seemed to have hit. He gestured back in the direction of the mall security office. "Let's see if Brass has those tapes yet."

"I have a feeling we should have taken those coupons for coffee." Sara was starting to feel the effects of this second shift.

"Well I happen to know where Greg hides his coffee, and if that doesn't work, we can take a break and grab a couple of power naps." He smiled at her as a genuine smile from her was directed at him.

"You know where he hides his coffee?" She looked a bit doubtful; Greg guarded the location of his Blue Hawaiian coffee carefully. "How did you find that out?"

Nick smirked. "Let's just say that I know a little something about our Mr. Sanders that he really wouldn't want to get out."

"Tell me." Sara insisted with all the patience of a child.

Nick shook his head. "Can't do it. I promised." He let out a chuckle as disappointment flitted across her face. "I'll tell you where the coffee is though."

"That's better than nothing." She felt a sudden flip in her stomach and she had to remind herself that they were working and she couldn't afford to swoon.

Brass intercepted them before they got all the way to the security office. He held a mall shopping bag in one hand and wore a smile on his face. "Bud went so far as to put these in the most time relevant order for us."

"Well wasn't that nice of Bud?" Nick sounded slightly patronizing at how the security lead had bent over backwards to help them, it almost made him wonder if he had some sort of role in the death of their mystery woman.

"I'll let you two take these." He handed the bag to Nick. "I believe it was your job to carry the packages."

Sara tried to keep from smiling without much success. "Thanks, Brass."

Brass glanced at his watch and then surveyed the CSIs for a moment. "I'll leave this in your capable hands. I'm going to try and get some shut eye."

"Thanks, Jim." Nick smirked as the homicide detective slowly headed towards the exit to the mall. He glanced over at Sara. "Looks like we have a date with the AV lab."

She let out a soft chuckle and looked back at him. "You really need to pick out better movies."


	5. Chapter 5

They were well on their way to consuming copious amounts of Greg's coffee and they were only into the third tape. So far, none of the tapes had revealed anything of interest. They showed employees showing up for work, but none of them had yet shown their victim. Sara was getting quite bleary eyed and she kept having to consciously force her eyes to stay open.

Nick kept glancing over at her every once in a while and couldn't help but smile as he watched her head jolt upright every now and then as she tried to stay awake.

It was into the fourth tape that she finally did fall asleep, her head resting on her arms on the table in the AV lab.

Nick seemed to be watching Sara sleep more than he was watching the video surveillance tape and midway through the fifth tape he almost missed it when their victim appeared on the tape. He watched as she seemed to disappear into the back entrance of a store, purse in hand, and then a short time later walked back out and headed to some sort of dumpster enclosure. It was after she emerged from there that she seemed to stagger in the direction of where she died.

Nick rewound the tape and tried to enlarge the image to see if he could determine what had happened inside the dumpster enclosure. Unfortunately, the wall surrounding the dumpster obstructed just enough of the view that he couldn't tell exactly what had happened. He knew that they were going to have to go back to the mall a third time and that Sara was going to want to see the video first.

He reached over and rested his hand on her back, gently rubbing it as he softly spoke her name. "Sara."

She stirred slightly, a smile forming on her face at the sensation of Nick rubbing her back, but she wasn't quite awake.

"Sara." Nick spoke a little louder, continuing to rub her back.

"Mmn, that feels nice." Sara's eyes were still closed and she was doing her best to try and wake up.

Nick let out a soft chuckle. "Looks like sleeping beauty got her nap." He had a fleeting thought that he wouldn't mind watching her sleep outside of work, but then banished it as he realized they still had a lot of work to do before either one of them could think about going home, tired or not.

"What did you find?" Sara let out a yawn and then reluctantly sat upright, letting out a bit of a smile as she realized that Nick was still rubbing her back. She glanced over at him with an expectant expression on her face.

Only then did he remove his hand. He pointed at the screen to show her what he'd seen. "Take a look." He replayed the tape and then paused it at the point where the woman staggered out of the enclosure. "I just can't make out what's going on in that enclosure."

"That looks like it's our primary crime scene." Sara watched closely as she reviewed the footage again and came to the same conclusion Nick did that they were going to have to go back to the mall a third time to see what they could find. The irony of the situation didn't escape her. "Remind me to go out of town next year about this time."

Nick laughed. "Yeah, me too. Three trips to the mall in one day are a little much." He slid off of the tall stool and rested his hands on Sara's shoulders. "I'll drive, you can sleep."

Sara let out another yawn and glanced up. "I had a nap." She stretched a little, and then realized that she'd developed a little kink in her neck. Before she had a chance to say anything else, she felt Nick's fingers gently begin to knead her shoulders. A smile began to spread across her face. "Do you hire out?"

Nick just smiled at her comment. "We could probably work something out." In reality, he reasoned that he'd pay her just for the privilege of massaging her shoulders, but she didn't need to know that; not at this point anyway.

She laughed. "You'd better stop before I fall asleep again." She let out another yawn and then slid off the stool and stood up, turning to face him.

For some reason, Nick found himself just staring at her, not realizing that he was also blocking her from going anywhere. It wasn't until he noticed a slight color change in Sara's cheeks that he sensed that he should probably at least blink.

"What?" Sara was feeling more than a little self conscious at the way Nick was looking at her. "Do I have something on my face?"

Nick coughed nervously and then shook his head, continuing to look at her. "No." He couldn't help but smile at her. "You're really cute when you're sleeping." He wasn't sure why he'd said it, but from the expression on her face, he certainly didn't regret it.

Sara felt her lips twitching upwards into a smile at Nick's compliment. She wasn't sure what was happening here, but she was just going to enjoy it. She and Nick had always flirted, but this just felt different; he just seemed different, and not for the first or even second time that day she felt her stomach flip. "We should probably go." She averted her glance from his only to find herself staring at his chest.

"Uh, yeah." Nick knew that the faster they got to the crime scene, the faster they would be able to wrap things up and go home and grab some sleep before their next shift. Maybe after that he'd have to opportunity and the courage to ask her out. He was getting the feeling that she just might say yes.

As they walked down the hallway towards the front doors of the lab, Sara glanced over at Nick and smiled, her arm brushing his momentarily. He glanced back and smiled, and Sara suddenly felt as if everyone in the entire lab was staring at them even though they were the only ones in the hallway at that moment.

When they walked outside, the sun was beginning to set lower in the sky indicating that much more time had passed than Sara had thought. They climbed into Nick's Denali and as she buckled her seatbelt, Sara glanced over at Nick and looked at him curiously. "So how long was I asleep?" There was more that she wanted to ask him, but she wanted to test the waters first.

Nick let out a soft chuckle. "A while." He really wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep; he'd been dividing his attention between watching the surveillance tapes and watching her sleep and he hadn't really been paying attention to the time.

Sara smirked a little self-consciously as she considered his earlier statement that he thought she was cute when she was sleeping and decided to test the waters just a little bit more. She arched an eyebrow just slightly. "And just how long were you watching me sleep?"


	6. Chapter 6

Nick felt like his heart had stopped for a moment inside of his chest and his mouth went dry. On the outside though, he appeared the picture of calm, at least until he tried to speak. "Uh, I." He swallowed hard. He had hoped that this conversation could be delayed until they'd finished up working this case and he could think of something witty that he could find a way out of if she didn't react favorably. It seemed however, that fate and Sara had moved his timing up considerably.

Sara watched him nervously, wondering if she had misread what she thought had been building between them.

Nick swallowed again as he looked over at her, and then he just cut to the chase, avoiding her question altogether. "Do you want to go on a date sometime?" He had a brief thought run through his mind that he wondered just how long a person could live if their heart did indeed stop in their chest.

Sara wasn't sure she heard him correctly even though she was looking right at him. All she was sure of was the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. "Hmm?" Her throat felt exceptionally dry as she tried to focus on his lips so she could see what he was saying.

Nick could see uncertainty on Sara's face, but he had gone this far, he plunged in with both feet. "I was hoping you might want to go out with me on a date sometime." Silence descended on his Denali for what seemed like an eternity as he waited for Sara to answer his question.

In reality, it was just a brief moment, long enough for Sara to register the words in her mind and force her lips to move. "Yes." She felt a smile pulling the corners of her mouth upwards as she realized that he'd been feeling the same thing she had.

Nick looked at her blankly for a good long minute before her answer began to sink into his consciousness. He arched both brows. "Did you say yes?" He wanted to absolutely certain that he hadn't imagined asking her out.

Sara nodded. "Yes." She found herself staring at him as a smile spread across his face.

"Ok." Nick's grin lit up his entire face. "Good." He just stared at her wanting to be reassured this was real.

Sara furrowed her brow and fidgeted nervously. "Uh, when?" She was trying to act as calm, cool, and collected as possible, but inside her stomach was doing a triple toe flip.

"When?" Nick hadn't really considered that, he had just been so nervous about asking her out that he didn't have it planned out that far. "After shift?"

"Sure." Sara reasoned that after shift was good, it was soon, and then she wouldn't have much time to worry about it, especially since there were already almost through their second shift of the day.

"Ok." Nick grinned at her for a moment and then realized that they still had a crime scene to get to.

Sara's thoughts were running along the same lines. "We should go to the mall." The sooner they wrapped this case up, the sooner they could go on that date. She'd had a nap and she was running on a rush of adrenaline, a date sounded good.

"Yeah." Nick turned the ignition on and quickly threaded the Denali out into traffic.

Neither one of them spoke much on the way, but every time they caught themselves glancing at each other, they couldn't help but smile and let out a chuckle.

As Nick pulled the Denali into the parking lot near the area they'd found the victim, he glanced over at Sara again. "You're really gonna go on a date with me." He just wanted to hear it one more time to be sure he wasn't dreaming.

Sara felt her cheeks turning a bit red. "Uh, yeah." She suddenly felt a wave of nervousness at the prospect of changing the nature of their relationship, but as he grinned at her, she knew that it was what she wanted.

"Ok then." He quickly shifted into professional mode. "Let's drive around the perimeter and see if we can figure out where that enclosure is." He had a plan forming in his mind and the sooner they took care of this case and found out exactly who their victim was and how she had died; he was going to put it into motion.

He began to slowly drive around the mall and it was less than 100 yards from where they'd found their victim that they saw a dumpster enclosure. He pulled the vehicle over and they wordlessly descended from it.

Almost as soon as they walked to the gate to the enclosure, Sara glanced over at Nick. "I think we've got blood."

He nodded in agreement. "I'll get the kits." He walked back to the Denali and grabbed both of their kits, hoping that this indeed was their crime scene.

Sara was trying to scan the area without touching the gate until they'd collected evidence from it, but so far, there was nothing that would indicate that there was any sort of weapon lying on the ground, and that meant that they would most likely have to look through the dumpster itself, something that was never fun.

Nick set their kits down on the ground and looked inside the enclosure. "Sara, how tall would you say our vic was?"

She had a thoughtful look on her face as she considered that they hadn't even had the prelim on the body yet, but from what she remembered, the victim was a few inches shorter than she was. "I'd say about five four."

Nick took in the scene and tried to work through what he thought might have happened on the portion of the enclosure that had been obstructed on the surveillance tape. "There wasn't anyone else in here on that tape." It would have been far easier to figure out what had happened if they had seen an assailant.

"She definitely looked like she was fine before she came in here, so whatever happened to her, happened in here." Sara was thinking out loud.

"You know the thing I don't understand is what she was doing in here in the first place. When she came out of the building, she wasn't carrying any trash bags out. What reason would she have to go in there?" Nick seemed to be a bit perplexed.

Sara didn't answer; she just stood there, her brow furrowed as she considered a few possibilities. Finally, an idea occurred to her and she turned towards Nick. "What if she noticed something out of place on the way in and decided to go back outside and check it out?"

"Isn't that the job of security?" Nick thought it was possible, but not probable that this woman would go back outside to check on something in the dark alone.

Sara ran her flashlight along the areas of the enclosure darkened by the shadows from the enclosure wall and the dumpster itself. As it glinted on something just to the side of the dumpster she paused. "Nick, keys."

"Let's take a look." He pulled on a pair of latex gloves and reached to open the gate to the enclosure, giving it a good yank as it seemed unwilling to yield.

Sara exchanged a look with Nick that this was an interesting development.

As Nick finally won the battle with the gate, something became very clear to both of them.


	7. Chapter 7

The hinge on the gate appeared to have been damaged and as a result the gate seemed to be spring loaded. Upon freeing it from the latch, it smacked the wall of the enclosure and then bounced off, only to smack it again several more times with enough force to have chipped away at the brick wall that surrounded the dumpster. That alone would have provided enough of a hazard to seriously injure someone, but upon walking into the enclosure Nick and Sara noticed that the gate itself seemed to be damaged. On the inside of the gate a portion of the metal framing had somehow become twisted, forming a protrusion from the rest of the gate. Nick surmised that a garbage truck had probably backed into it at one point and over time it had just gotten worse making it an accident waiting to happen. Unfortunately for their victim, that accident had happened today.

"I've got more blood." Sara's examination of the metal poking out seemed to support their theory. A simple testing utilizing phenylthaline confirmed the presence of blood and upon closer inspection; they found several fibers of the same color as the shirt their victim was wearing.

Nick surveyed the scene and let out a frustrated sigh. "This whole situation just seems wrong." Everything about this could have been preventable.

"We still don't know why she came out here." Sara nodded, but something still was nagging at her. As much as she wanted to wrap up the case and go on that date with Nick, she wanted to know the truth and she knew that he did too.

Nick pursed his lips together for a moment as he considered several possible scenarios. "Maybe she was coming out here to get something."

Sara just stared at the dumpster thoughtfully. "I don't think she got very far, her keys are right here." She kneeled down and picked up the keys that lay on the ground and slid them into an evidence bag.

"Maybe she hid something out here and was planning on picking it up before the garbage trucks picked up." Nick suggested.

"But they're on a holiday schedule." Sara recalled getting a notice at her apartment from the waste management company saying that all garbage pickup would happen a day later than normal due to the holidays.

"So they pick up tomorrow morning, but she wanted to make sure that whatever was out here didn't get dumped because she wasn't sure when she'd be able to get away from work." Nick continued.

"Well if she put something out here, where is it?" Sara knew that if his theory was correct, there should be something out here for them to find, unless they were wrong about the trash pickup.

Nick recalled what he's seen on the video surveillance tape. "She didn't open the dumpster. She was over here somewhere and then the gate hit her before she could get out." He gestured towards the gap between the wall and the dumpster.

Sara walked over, flashlight in hand and shown it into the dark shadows. There taped on the side of the dumpster with duct tape was an envelope. "It looks like you're right." She glanced back at Nick and grinned at the fact that he was paying more attention to her backside than what she was saying. "Nick."

He knew she'd caught him and he flashed her a sheepish smile. "You found something?"

"Yeah." She smirked back at him. She was finding a great deal of pleasure in the fact that he was ogling her, but at the same time, she could feel her cheeks getting warm and she knew that she was blushing.

Nick stepped towards her and took a few pictures of the bulky envelope before Sara reached in and carefully peeled it off the dumpster utilizing a pair of tweezers to preserve fingerprint evidence and to keep the tape from sticking to her latex gloves. She looked up at Nick with an incredulous expression. "There's a lot of cash in here."

Nick raised a curious eyebrow. "Maybe our victim had sticky fingers in the till."

"Or maybe she was picking up some sort of payoff for something." Sara offered.

"She could have been the one making the payoff." His theory had just as much merit. "Although she didn't seem to have anything in hand besides her keys when she came out here, at least that's visible on the tape."

"We still don't even know who she is." Sara felt a sudden wave of frustration fueled by not enough sleep and not enough food.

"Let's just finish processing the scene and get the evidence back to the lab. I think we could both use a break." He gave her one of those looks that was decidedly protective in nature. He knew that they were both close to hitting a wall and from the looks of things there was going to be more to this case than they could accomplish in the remaining shift without some rest and food.

She knew he was right, but part of her just wanted to push through and get the evidence processed.

"Sara." He could tell she was about to fight him on it, and he was prepared to stand his ground.

She glanced up at him and let out a soft chuckle.

"Why don't we take this stuff back to the lab, check it into evidence and then we can take a break for a while." He couldn't remember when he last slept, but at the moment he could tell that he was quickly running out of steam.

A slightly disappointed expression flitted across Sara's face and then she smirked. "What about that date?" He had promised they'd go out after shift, and she was intent on holding him to it, even if they fell asleep during dinner.

He couldn't help his smile. "How about dinner and a movie, and then maybe a nap?" He didn't realize how his words might have sounded until they were out of his mouth. His eyes immediately widened.

Sara wasn't sure what to say at first.

"I mean, we can crash at my place. My couch is really comfortable and I live closer to the lab than you do." He hoped that she didn't think he wanted to date her for only one reason, although, admittedly, that thought had definitely occurred to him.

She let out a nervous laugh and smiled. "That sounds really nice. I think I could fall asleep on my feet right now to be honest."

Nick looked into her eyes, unable to keep from grinning like a fool. "And you're the one who had the nap."

She crossed her arms over her chest and raised a single eyebrow. "You know, you never did answer my question earlier."

Nick feigned innocence. "What question was that?"

She stepped towards him, her stern expression failing as a smile began to pull at her mouth. "How long were you watching me sleep?"

He was sure that his cheeks were turning a little pink because of the way they were burning, but this time he didn't shy away from the question. "A while."


	8. Chapter 8

They were on their way back to the lab to log in the evidence they'd gathered, including the protrusion from the gate; Nick had used a pair of bolt cutters to remove it. As they drove, something occurred to Sara. She glanced over at Nick. "What if she had nothing to do with that envelope?"

He smiled at her. "We'll have to see what the evidence says, but in the meantime, we need to take a break."

Sara smiled in spite of herself. "So you promised dinner and a movie. I hope we're going to watch something a little more exciting than surveillance videos." She smirked.

He feigned a serious expression. "I personally found them riveting."

"Well, maybe I'll have to reconsider that date then." She was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

Nick looked panicked for a fraction of a second until he noticed her smile. "We don't have to go out today you know, we could wait until we both have a little time off." It wasn't that he didn't want to spend more time with her, he was just afraid he was going to fall asleep and he wouldn't get to enjoy their date.

"You're not trying to back out now?" Sara looked a little worried.

Nick would have laughed if he didn't feel so insecure himself. "I definitely don't want to back out, I just want to be awake to enjoy our date."

The words were out of Sara's mouth before she could think. "So you don't want to sleep with me on the first date then." Only after the words were out of her mouth hanging in the air did it register in her mind what she'd said; her cheeks immediately turned pink.

"Are you offering?" Nick couldn't resist teasing her.

"Nick!" Sara looked embarrassed.

Nick let out a chuckle. "Hey, I'm not the one that brought it up."

"I didn't mean that the way it sounded. I meant sleep not sex." Sara was trying to keep from giving him the wrong impression, although the thought had occurred to her on more than one occasion.

He winked at her. "I know."

Sara looked out the window of the Denali and cleared her throat. "So what are we going to eat?" She hoped that changing the subject might help her cheeks return to their normal color.

Nick chuckled again and grinned. "I thought I'd order a pizza when we leave the lab so we can meet the pizza man at my house."

"What kind of pizza?" Sara realized that she hadn't eaten in a while and at the mention of pizza her stomach started to complain that it had been neglected for too long.

Nick had a mischievous expression on his face. "I was thinking double meat, hold the veggies."

Sara rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Actually, I thought I'd order two pizzas, one for you and one for me." He smiled at her.

Sara glanced over and raised a single eyebrow. "If you order double meat you'd better plan on brushing your teeth or I'm not going to let you kiss me."

Nick looked extremely pleased at the thought of kissing Sara and his smile widened into a grin at the thought. "I may just have to eat veggie then. I'm not sure I want to wait until we're done eating to kiss you."

The look on Sara's face was priceless. It was a mixture of surprise, pleasure and embarrassment. She and Nick had always been able to talk openly as colleagues and friends, but moving their relationship into the romantic realm was new and scary and the reality that he wanted to kiss her as badly as she wanted to kiss him had her stomach doing flips. "Ok."

Nick pulled the Denali into the parking lot just then and as he steered into a slot near the front entrance, he glanced over at her with a grin. "Let's go check this evidence in and get out of here for a while." If he'd thought no one would see them, he would have leaned over and kissed her then, but he didn't want an audience for their first kiss and he didn't think she did either.

They headed into the lab, evidence in hand, and quickly went to check it in. They would have to log the money in later, noting each and every serial number, but for now, they put evidence seals on it to ensure that it wouldn't be tampered with. After dropping blood samples off in DNA and the fibers they'd pulled off of the metal protrusion in Trace, they headed to the locker room to collect their gear.

Nick couldn't help stealing glances at Sara as she quickly sifted through a duffel bag that she'd pulled out of her locker to ensure that she had a change of clothes. There were just so many things that Nick had never really taken the time to notice about her before and the way she scrunched up her nose as she concentrated was one of them. Of course part of the reason that he hadn't noticed was that he hadn't wanted to get caught staring and out of habit he quickly glanced away and pulled his jacket out of his own locker as she stood up and closed her locker door.

"Ready?" Sara smiled at him, excited at the prospect of spending time alone with him outside of work. The fact that he'd said he wanted to kiss her was making her impatient to get out of the lab and she sincerely hoped that they'd actually get out of the lab before they got roped into working another case.

Nick grinned at her. "Yeah."

They had almost gotten to the door to leave the locker room when Grissom walked in. He regarded the pair curiously and raised an eyebrow at the bag in Sara's hand. "You two are here early."

"Actually, we haven't left yet." Nick informed him. He felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he noted Grissom's expression.

"How's the case?" Grissom hadn't had a chance to talk with either one of them since he'd assigned the case near the end of their regular shift.

"We still haven't gotten an ID on the vic, but the death appears accidental." Sara added.

"Although, we may have stumbled onto something else in the process." Nick continued.

Grissom interest was piqued.

They explained what they had found and what their suspicions were and that they expected that there was going to be quite a bit more follow up involved.

"Has the coroner done the prelim on the body yet?" Grissom was curious why they were leaving when there was still so much left to do on the case.

Nick shook his head. "I checked with David and they're backed up because of the vacation schedule. He thought he might be ready later on tonight."

Sara was anxious to get out of the lab, not only because she was hungry and tired and wanted to be alone with Nick, but because Grissom was looking at her oddly.

"We're just taking a break to get something to eat and hopefully catch a few hours of sleep." To Sara, Nick seemed oblivious to the subtle tension coming from Grissom.

"Although some of us have already had a head start on that sleep." Nick smirked at Sara with mischief in his eyes.

Grissom quirked an eyebrow.

Sara did her best to keep from smiling as she felt her cheeks begin to burn. "I had a nap."

Nick leaned towards Grissom and spoke conspiratorially. "Be careful if you go in the AV lab, I think she drooled on the table in there."

Sara's eyebrows shot up and she let out a cross between a chortle and an embarrassed snort. "Nick!"

Grissom's mouth twitched upwards in a boyish half smirk. "I'll keep that in mind."

Without any further discussion, Nick slung and arm across Sara's shoulders. "C'mon, Sidle, there's a pizza waiting with your name on it." He propelled her towards the front doors of the lab, leaving Grissom standing there with a curious expression on his face.


	9. Chapter 9

The pizza delivery man was just pulling up as Nick pulled his Denali into the driveway. "See I told you if I called before we pulled out of the lot at the lab that he'd meet us here."

She looked amused. "You've done this before, haven't you?"

He just grinned at her. "Now what makes you say that?"

As they descended from the vehicle, the twenty-something delivery driver lifted his hand in greeting. "Hey, Nick."

"Carlos man, how's it going?" Nick pulled out his wallet and handed the young man more than enough for the pizza.

"You want some change?" Carlos raised an eyebrow at him curious if he was getting a generous tip or if Nick was just distracted by the beautiful woman standing next to him.

"Keep it man. You're gonna need it next semester, chemistry books aren't cheap." Nick smiled good naturedly as he took two pizza boxes from Carlos and then turned towards Sara. "Sara, this is Carlos, he's majoring in biochemistry at Western LVU and I think I might have convinced him he should think about a career in criminalistics."

Sara smiled genuinely and extended her hand in greeting. "Hey, Carlos, nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Carlos smiled back as he shook her hand and then gave Nick a curious smile.

Nick let out a soft chuckle. "Sara and I work together at the crime lab. You should pick her brain sometime, she majored in theoretical physics."

Carlos winced. "Smart and beautiful." He winked and then pointed at Nick. "You're a lucky man, Nick. I gotta get back to work. See you later."

"Later man." Nick waved as Carlos headed back to his car and then glanced over at Sara who was clearly amused. "What?"

"Is there anyone in this town you don't know?" Sara was always amazed at how Nick seemed to make friends so easily and keep them for so long. It was completely contrary to how she felt she was and it was one of the things that she found so attractive about him.

Nick laughed and slung his arm over her shoulder as he propelled them towards his front door. "Carlos has been delivering my pizza since he was in high school."

They made their way into his house and Nick headed into the kitchen to get a couple of plates for their pizza. He called out as he loaded up their plates. "Just make yourself at home, but don't try and turn the TV on yet, I just got a new remote and it's a little tricky."

Sara smirked as the TV came on just as he finished his sentence. "What was that you were saying?" She had settled herself on the couch and had turned the home theater system on without batting an eyelash.

He just shook his head and laughed as he rounded the corner from the kitchen into the living room with two plates full of pizza. "I should have known better than to tell you not to do something."

Sara noticed that both plates were loaded with two kinds of veggie pizza and a smile stole across her face at the thought that she was going to let him kiss her any damn time he wanted to. She took one of the plates from him, her smile widening. "Thanks."

Nick couldn't stop staring at her. "You're welcome." As he stood there a thought occurred to him. "You want something to drink?" He quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Uh, yeah." Sara couldn't stop staring at his lips.

"Iced tea ok?" Nick reasoned that alcohol probably wasn't a good idea since they were going to have to go back to work in a few hours.

"Sure." Sara watched as he set his plate down on the coffee table and disappeared back into the kitchen. A few moments later, he emerged with two glasses of iced tea and a couple of napkins.

For some reason, Nick felt nerves tumbling around in his stomach as he sat down next to Sara on the couch and put the glasses on the coffee table. "How's the pizza?" He glanced over at her and smiled realizing she had a mouthful.

Sara could feel herself blushing as she tried to chew and swallow and when she finally did, she smiled at Nick. "It's good."

They found themselves staring at each other for a good long minute and then Nick chuckled nervously. "I left the surveillance videos at the lab."

It took Sara a moment to follow what he was saying, but then she started to laugh. "Uh, good." It seemed that her vocabulary had been narrowed down to one and two word sentences since she'd sat down.

"We could watch something on pay-per-view." Nick suggested, having absolutely no clue what movies were even available since he'd spent more time at the lab lately than sitting in front of his TV.

"Regular TV is fine too." Sara really didn't want to have him pay for a movie since she had a sneaking suspicion they weren't going to be seeing all of it anyway.

He looked at her with amusement. "Discovery Channel?" He knew that the entire night shift crew teased him about his television watching habits, but he also knew that Sara watched the channel probably even more than he did.

"Yeah." She was really beginning to wonder if the portions of her brain that controlled intelligent speech had short circuited.

Nick quickly flipped the channel to find that an episode of the New Detectives was just beginning. "Oh, I love this one."

Sara glanced over at him, noticing that he was completely serious and started to giggle. "We are a couple of geeks, you know that?"

He grinned at her and for the first time since they'd gotten to his house he began to relax a little. "Maybe that's why we're perfect for each other." He had a momentary flash of panic that maybe he'd revealed too much of what he was feeling in that statement, but from the smile on Sara's face, he thought that just maybe she agreed with him.

She hoped that the stampede of elephants taking up residence in her stomach weren't evident on her face at that moment. "You think so, huh?"

Nick wasn't sure he trusted his voice so he just nodded and slowly scooted closer to her. "Yeah, I think so." He wanted to kiss her so badly and he felt like his heart was going to stop as he realized that she was going to let him.

Sara was very aware of the deep coffee color of his eyes as she stared back into them and she almost felt like she could drown in them. "Me too."

Nick garnered a little courage and dipped his head towards hers. He noticed Sara's eyes fluttering shut an instant before his did and then his lips softly touched hers as he began to tentatively kiss her and as she began to respond eagerly, he felt like he'd just tasted a little bit of heaven.

They moved towards each other as they tried to deepen the kiss and it was only then that Sara realized that she still had her plate of pizza on her lap. They pulled apart laughing at the gooey mess of cheese, sauce and veggies that had splattered all over Nick in the process.


	10. Chapter 10

"I think I'm just going to have to go change my clothes." Nick looked down at the mess that he and Sara had been trying to pick off of his clothes, but the sauce had seeped through his shirt and his pants weren't doing much better.

"I'm really sorry about that. I should have put the pizza down first." Sara looked at him somewhat apologetically, trying to restrain a smile.

He grinned at her. "I'm not sorry. I'm definitely not ever going to forget that kiss."

Sara's cheeks tinged a little pink. "I'm not sure I want to be remembered for plastering you with pizza."

He was openly admiring her. "Oh, it's not just the pizza that made it memorable."

Sara's smile was unrestrainable. "Maybe we should finish eating before we try that again." As much as she had enjoyed that kiss, she wanted more of them and without the distraction of pizza.

Nick reached over and tucked an errant lock of hair behind her ear. "I'll be right back." He paused for just a fraction of a second and looked into her eyes before he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss.

Sara felt a flurry of butterflies in her stomach as she watched him stand up and head down to the hallway to his bedroom to change his clothes. While he was changing, she decided to clean up the rest of the pizza that had gotten onto Nick's leather couch and she took her plate with what remained of her pizza into the kitchen. As she was getting herself more pizza on a fresh plate, she felt a pair of hands coming to rest on her waist and Nick's breath against her cheek.

"You didn't have to clean that up you know." His smile was evident in his voice.

Sara turned around to face him and as she did, she rested her hands on his biceps becoming very aware of just how strong he was. "You clean up pretty good." The shirt he'd changed into was just a plain gray T-shirt, but it fit him well and accentuated his muscular physique quite nicely.

He whispered in a slightly husky voice. "Well you look pretty damn good just the way you are."

Sara wasn't sure why she was nervous, maybe because she was still experiencing some disbelief that this was actually happening. She unconsciously wet her lips as she felt him slide his arms around her waist and pull her towards him. Her hands splayed across his chest and she couldn't keep her eyes off of his lips. They stood like that for what felt like an eternity to Sara until she couldn't stand it anymore. She looked up into his eyes and smirked. "Are you going to just stand there all day or are you going to kiss me?"

Nick let out a chuckle at her impatience. "Well since you put it like that." He acted like he was going to let her go, but then laughed at the impertinent look on her face and pulled her even closer.

Sara smirked at him, stating the obvious. "You're still not kissing me."

"I think I can do something about that." Nick smirked back and then dipped his head towards hers.

It was Sara who closed the distance between them though as her lips sought out his in a soft kiss. That kiss turned into several more kisses and then as Sara slid her arms up his chest and around his neck, the kisses deepened.

They stood there like that in the kitchen for quite a while trading slow deep kisses; Sara stuck between Nick and the kitchen counter as they enjoyed the sensation of holding onto each other. It wasn't until Nick's stomach grumbled loudly that they pulled apart a bit breathless but with smiles on their faces.

"You're hungry." Sara was hungry too, but she'd at least had a nap and some food.

"I do recall you saying that we should eat before we did this again." He was trying to let it sink in that he and Sara had just made out in the middle of his kitchen and from the smile on her face, she had thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Sara giggled. "I guess I didn't feel like waiting." She felt her own stomach complaining.

Nick laughed. "Ok, I think we should eat, especially now that the pizza's probably cold."

Sara pushed him away with an impish grin. "I like cold pizza. It was a staple in college."

Nick quirked an eyebrow. "And I thought only guys lived on that."

Sara picked up a slice of pizza and took a bite out of it, smiling as she swallowed. "Can I ask you something?" There were several things that she was curious about and she finally had the confidence to ask him.

"Sure." Nick reached past her and grabbed a slice of pizza for himself taking a large bite.

Sara hesitated for a moment and took another bite from her pizza.

Nick watched her curiously and continued to wolf down his slice of pizza, grabbing another one as he waited for her to say something.

A hint of doubt flickered in Sara's eyes as she looked at Nick. "Why did you want to go out with me?" Her track record with men was a bit dismal the last few years and she wanted some sort of reassurance from him that he wasn't in this to use her.

Nick's eyes widened in surprise. He had anticipated that maybe she wanted to grill him about his overblown reputation as a ladies man, but he couldn't understand why she'd question why any man wouldn't want to go out with her, but then Grissom had turned her down and Hank had used her to cheat on his girlfriend. It was natural that Sara might have doubts about his intentions. "Why wouldn't I want to go out with you? You're one of the most amazing people that I know and you're also one of the most beautiful women that I've ever known. I should be asking you why in the world you agreed to go out with me."

Sara looked at him intently for a moment as she absorbed his words and then a tiny smile began to tug at her lips. "You're pretty amazing too."

Nick just smiled at her, glad that the feeling was mutual. He felt like perhaps she needed to know a little more of what he was thinking, but he wasn't going to push it quite yet. He didn't want to scare her off by being too intense too fast. "Why don't we go back out in the living room and watch a little TV?"

She smiled back at him. "That sounds good."

He waggled his eyebrows at her. "Or maybe we could just kiss a little more."

She let out a soft chuckle and grinned at him. "That sounds even better."

"Good." He grinned. "But why don't we leave the pizza in here this time?"


	11. Chapter 11

Sara was vaguely aware of the drone of power tools in the background and she wondered momentarily if she was dreaming. As she became more alert she also became aware of the fact that something was firmly wrapped around her waist. Panic surged through her for a moment until she realized where she was and then a smile stole across her face as she realized that she and Nick had fallen asleep on his couch watching TV. As the noise coming from the TV filtered into her mind she realized that an episode of 'Monster House' must be on and she let her eyes slowly open. It was at that point she felt Nick's arm tighten a little around her waist.

"She's awake." He had a grin on his face at the fact that they'd fallen asleep together after making out in front of the TV.

Sara let out a soft chuckle. "How long have you been watching me sleep?" She wasn't sure what he found so thrilling about her in an unconscious state.

Nick looked like a kid who had gotten his hand caught in a cookie jar and then he smirked at her. "A little while; I couldn't sleep with all that snoring."

Sara scoffed and propped herself up on his chest. "I don't snore." There was a little seed of doubt in her mind that maybe she did snore, but she wasn't going to let him off so easy.

Nick feigned innocence. "Who said it was you?" He let out a laugh as he watched Sara's eyebrow arch upwards in doubt. Nick cleared his throat. "Actually, I was a little distracted by this beautiful woman that fell asleep on me." This time Sara's cheeks flushed pink and Nick grinned at her.

Sara let out a yawn and then tried to change the subject. "How long have we been sleeping?" She knew that they really needed to get back to work and try and identify their victim so that the family would at least have some measure of closure no matter how long the processing of the rest of the evidence took.

"About four hours." Nick answered trailing his fingers along her back, smoothing out her shirt that matched her eyes so well.

Sara smiled at the sensation. She hoped that they weren't rushing things too quickly; to her it seemed that they'd spent far more time kissing than talking, but at the same time, they'd known each other for four and a half years, and it wasn't like they were strangers. She furrowed her brow. "Did we eat all of the pizza?"

Nick shook his head. "I'm pretty sure we saved at least some from my makeover earlier." He tried to dodge as she swatted at him and his eyes widened as he ended up slipping off of the couch and onto the floor with a thud.

Sara snorted as she laughed at the facial expressions on Nick's face. "Good move." She peered down at him over the edge of the couch.

In one swift move, Nick reached up and grabbed Sara's arm and pulled.

Sara let out a squeal as she tumbled off the couch and landed on Nick.

Nick let out an oomph as Sara's elbow jabbed him in the gut as she fell. "That probably wasn't a good idea." Nick quipped as he wrapped his arms around Sara and pulled her flush against him.

"Oh, I don't know." Sara had a mischievous look in her eye as she splayed her hands out across his chest and angled her face towards his. "I think we can make the best of it."

Nick let out a chuckle as he realized that her lips were just a fraction of an inch from his. He leaned up and captured her lips with his and they lay like that for a few minutes, making a leisurely exploration of each other's mouths. Caught up in the moment, Nick found his hands drifting down to Sara's denim clad butt.

Sara broke off the kiss and pulled her head away, nervously clearing her throat.

Nick froze, he didn't move his hands, but he didn't say anything either.

Sara pursed her lips together and looked down at Nick with a restrained smile. "We should probably get up." It wasn't that she wasn't enjoying herself, she was. In fact, she was probably enjoying herself too much and she knew if they kept this up all rational thought would fly right out the window and they might start taking steps that they weren't quite ready for. Not to mention the fact that they really did need to get to work.

"Ok." There was uncertainty all over Nick's face and he wondered if the trip his hands had taken southward had crossed a line and he'd just ruined what had seemed to be going so well.

Sara didn't move right away, she noticed the expression on Nick's face and felt like she needed to say something to reassure him. "We just need to get to work." She didn't want him thinking that she was putting the brakes on altogether.

Nick quirked an eyebrow at her. "I can't get up. Someone seems to be laying on me again."

She smirked at him. "Well, someone seems to have a firm grip on my butt."

Nick quickly moved his hands and looked at her a bit sheepishly. "Uh, I didn't offend you there did I?" He really wanted to make sure he hadn't done anything to make her uncomfortable.

Sara let out a soft chuckle. "No." She wasn't sure how to phrase what was on her mind. "I just thought we should stop before things got out of hand." She leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on his lips before extricating herself from the situation and standing up.

Nick sat up as Sara smoothed her clothes out. "So we're good then?" He just wanted to make doubly sure that he hadn't been out of line.

Sara had a sly smirk on her face. "Oh, we're very good."

Nick just grinned at her and as he stood up, his cell phone rang. He reached for it where it sat on the coffee table and quickly flipped it open. "Stokes." He glanced at Sara. "Hey, Jim."

Sara looked at him inquisitively, wondering what news Brass had regarding their case.

"Sure. No, we just took a break to get some sleep." He smiled at Sara. "No, I'll tell her. We'll meet you there. Thanks." As he ended the call he answered her silent question. "Brass got an ID on our vic."


	12. Chapter 12

After they'd each grabbed a quick shower and a couple of pieces of cold pizza Nick and Sara were on their way to meet Brass. Sara was acutely aware of the fact that her hair smelled like Nick's shampoo and she couldn't keep from smiling. Neither one of them was particularly talkative as they thought about what was happening between them. Sara was curious exactly what Nick's intentions were because she knew that her heart was already in too deep to let things go after one nice date. She wasn't ready to tell him that, but she was certainly feeling it. She really didn't want to get hurt again, she wasn't sure she could handle it.

Nick glanced over at her and noticed the somewhat serious expression on her face. He felt a bit of sinking feeling in his gut, but he reasoned that she might be thinking about the case and shouldn't jump to conclusions that she really wasn't that interested in him. He knew that there needed to be more dates, a lot more dates between them and he hoped that his eagerness wouldn't scare her off. He'd been pining away for her in some form or another since he'd met her, but he'd only admitted it to himself more recently where he knew he was going to have to do something about it or reconcile himself to either going crazy or consider becoming a priest. He'd actually given the priest idea some thought since he wasn't particularly keen on the idea of insanity. Of course that was before he'd asked her out.

Sara felt Nick looking at her and she let out a soft chuckle. "You know, you might want to try and pipe down over there, you're not letting me get a word in edgewise."

Nick laughed. "Sorry, you seemed lost in thought and I didn't want to interrupt." She really was beautiful and her smile made his heart flip.

Sara looked over at him as he drove, her voice was soft. "I really had fun with you." There were a lot of things she was saying in that simple phrase.

Nick grinned at her. "I really had fun with you too."

Silence descended on the Denali for a moment.

Then they spoke at once.

"I was thinking." Nick felt his words were tripping over each other.

"I had a thought." Sara giggled nervously as she realized they both seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"You first." Nick was always the gentleman.

"Uh, no, you." This was one topic that Sara wanted to see his cards first before she gave a hint of what was on her mind. Despite the fact that they'd spent a rather cozy evening together on his couch, she wasn't going to let him know how deep she was in.

Nick felt a sudden drop in his stomach and forced a laugh out. "Ok." He gathered his thoughts and then glanced over at her, thankful for the red light. "I was thinking that maybe we could go out again, I mean, that we could just go out, I mean, that we could date each other."

Sara knew that she was smiling like a fool. Apparently all of her worry and concern was for naught. "Yes." She let out a nervous laugh. "I'd really like that."

"Ok." Nick felt a different kind of sensation in his stomach, but this was the kind that he felt when he went paragliding. He was so caught up in how her answer made him feel that he momentarily forgot that she wanted to say something too. "Uh, what were you going to say?"

"Nothing." Sara felt her cheeks hurting from all of the smiling she was doing. "I mean, I just wanted to see, well, what you asked me answered my question." She hadn't felt this tongue tied for quite a while.

Nick couldn't resist an opportunity to try and lighten the moment. "I always knew you wanted me."

Sara scoffed and Nick just laughed and they fell into easy conversationuntil they pulled into the parking lot of the police station where they were going to meet Brass. It didn't take long to locate him; he was standing in the lobby, just having gotten there himself.

He wasted no time on filling them in on what he knew. "Our vic is one Vanessa Ellis, age 32. She apparently wasn't supposed to be working, so no one knew she was missing until the night manager of the clothing store she worked in happened to find her purse sitting in the back office when she went to close up and prepare for the bank deposit."

"Has her family been notified yet?" Sara immediately switched into professional mode.

"Not so far." Brass continued as they headed down the hallway to his office. "I've got a uniform on trying to get in touch with her emergency contact that she'd listed on her employment application."

"We still aren't certain about the cause of death, but it may be accidental." Nick interjected.

Brass considered his words for a moment as they walked into his office. "You mean the gate on the enclosure."

Nick nodded. "That thing was an accident waiting to happen."

"Well, I like our vic for theft." Brass continued.

"She was stealing from the store?" Sara inquired hoping that this would explain the envelope of money they'd found taped to the dumpster.

"The manager indicated that there was a considerable amount of money missing and she gave me this." Brass handed over a handwritten note in a plastic evidence bag.

Nick and Sara did a quick read through of the note and as they did something occurred to Nick. "Ok, so she steals the money and tapes it to the dumpster. The only problem with that is she didn't have anything in her hands except for her keys when she went out to the dumpster before she was killed."

Sara nodded. "And who wrote the note? It sounds like directions for someone. She wasn't supposed to work, so are we sure the note was for her?"

"That's for you two to find out." Brass replied a bit dryly.

"Well one thing is sure, if someone else did put the envelope on the dumpster there's only one way to find out." Nick smirked at Sara.

She rolled her eyes. "Please don't tell me what I think you're telling me." She knew exactly what he was proposing; she just hoped that the coffee at the lab was fresh.

Nick just grinned at her. "Coffee and a movie, Sara?"


	13. Chapter 13

Nick was well into his fourth cup of coffee as he perused the third video of the shift. So far nothing remarkable outside of the security guards making an occasional sweep of the parking lot in their vehicles had shown up on the tape. While he was watching the videos Sara had decided to take on the task of methodically logging in the serial numbers of each and every bill they had found in the envelope. They had decided that to divide and conquer was probably a better strategy than to stick together and be distracted. Nick lifted the cup of coffee up to his lips again only to stop before taking a sip and then set the cup right back down as he noticed something curious on the tape.

He rewound it and played it again to make sure he was seeing things correctly. After replaying it about a half a dozen times and zooming in a bit, he decided that Sara would want to see this.

He found her in one of the layout rooms still hunched over an array of dog-eared ones, fives, tens, twenties, and the occasional fifty, all sorted by denomination. He couldn't help but smile as he noticed that she was softly singing to herself, a smile playing at her lips. He walked up and slid onto a stool next to her, leaning over and whispering in her ear. "You have a nice voice."

She felt herself blush slightly; her singing was something that she did subconsciously. "I'm sure you didn't come down here just to tell me that." Part of her wished that he had come down the hall just to see her, but they were working on a case and she knew that his appearance most likely had something to do with it rather than her.

"That's true, but you have a nice voice all the same." He was seriously tempted to kiss her just then, but reached over to tuck a stray curl behind her ear instead; somehow finding that less incriminating should someone walk into the room. He didn't want to hide the fact that he and Sara had become an item, but he didn't want to force her into revealing something if she didn't want to.

Sara smiled at his affectionate gesture. "Did you find something on one of those videos?" Her mind briefly drifted back to Nick's couch as she glanced at his lips and remembered just how pleasantly surprised she'd been at how soft they were.

Nick nodded, unconsciously resting his hand on her thigh. "I did." He noticed her lips pull ever so slightly further upward and he found his own smile widening as well.

She let out a soft chuckle and smirked at him. "Are you going to tell me what you found or do I have to drag it out of you?"

Nick laughed and then spoke in a soft conspiratorial tone. "As much as I'd like to have you drag it out of me, I'd rather show you." He arched his brows suggestively at her for a moment.

Sara let out a sort of half laugh as she pulled her latex gloves off and slid off of the stool.

It was almost too much temptation for Nick to pass up as he stood up. He and Sara were just inches from each other and all he could think about at that moment was that he wanted to kiss her.

Sara seemed to read his mind and she cleared her throat. "This probably isn't the best place for that." Her eyes were telling him that she wanted to kiss him as much as he wanted to kiss her, but they both knew that they needed to act professionally while they were at work.

Nick let out a nervous laugh and reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, a sheepish expression on his face. "Yeah." It occurred to him that they were going to need a second date very soon.

"So the tape." Sara was trying to focus her mind on the case rather than on those deep brown eyes of his.

"The tape." Nick nodded. "We should go watch it." He turned on his heals and walked out of the room trying to clear his head a little as Sara followed after him. When they'd settled themselves in the AV lab, Nick played the portion of the tape in question.

He pointed at the screen after they'd viewed a short portion of it. "What do you think about that?" He turned towards Sara to see if she was thinking the same thing he was.

"The gate was sabotaged." Sara looked incredulous. "So we may be looking at murder here." It never ceased to amaze her at all the ways people did horrible things to each other.

"I've isolated the best face shot we have of the individual." He zoomed in and showed Sara what he was talking about. "And our vic didn't put that envelope in there, this guy did."

"We don't know that it's a man." Sara furrowed her brow as she studied the face on the screen; there was something vaguely familiar about that face.

"True, it's pretty shadowy, but I think with a little more rendering we'll be able to come up with something." Nick continued.

"So if this guy or girl put the envelope on the dumpster, they might be responsible for that note." Sara reasoned and then furrowed her brow again. "Although, the manager of the store said the note was on the desk in that back room. Why would the vic leave it in plain sight?"

Nick considered her words for a moment. "Well she obviously didn't expect to die out there. Maybe she went to retrieve the envelope and thought she'd be back in before anyone else showed up."

Sara shook her head. "There's just something about this that I don't like. Someone was obviously expecting that envelope to be picked up and they wanted to make sure whoever it was didn't get very far."

"Well we know that the vic didn't put the money out there; she wasn't even supposed to be working that day." Nick began to reason out what they knew. "The manager said that there was a large sum of cash missing, which correlates to the cash found in the envelope."

"The note the manger handed to Brass indicated that our vic needed to go out to the dumpster in the first place." Sara really didn't think things were adding up right. "But it didn't actually mention our victim's name and if she wasn't even supposed to be at work, what if someone else was supposed to get that note?"

"I don't know about you, but I'd say someone is lying." Nick began to formulate an idea in his mind.

Sara nodded and then smiled a bit wryly. "Well I know it's not the evidence because it never lies."


	14. Chapter 14

Brass never really looked surprised when the oddest pieces of a puzzle slid into place. "The thing that I don't get is what did Vanessa Ellis ever do to you?" He was sitting across an interrogation room table from a woman who was in her late twenties and from her exterior looked like the girl next door.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Monica Fitzgerald was the manager of the store that Vanessa had worked in and she looked as nervous as a cat in a room full of Rottweilers.

"C'mon Monica. You girls had a little tiff. She had it in for you with upper management or something." Brass seemed to specialize in spreading a little irritation into the room so the suspect would respond emotionally rather than rationally.

"No." Monica's brow furrowed. "Vanessa and I were friends. She wasn't supposed to be working." The woman was clearly troubled, but it was unclear if it was from remorse or having been brought in for questioning.

"Your fingerprints were found on the envelope the missing money was in, as well as on the duct tape. You were the one that put the money on that dumpster." Brass decided to cut to the chase and see what he might get.

The color seemed to drain out of Monica's face as she realized what Brass was implying.

"We know that you tampered with the gate." Brass continued. He slid a sheet of paper across the table so Monica could see it. "You're a mechanical engineering major at Western LVU. You knew exactly how to rig the hinge so it became a deadly weapon."

All the cards were on the table and Monica was white as a sheet as she realized that she'd been caught red handed. "She wasn't supposed to be at work. She was my friend." Monica looked truly sick.

Sara had been sitting next to Brass not saying anything to this point. "Monica, if Vanessa wasn't the target, who was?" There was something vaguely familiar about he stricken expression on the face of the woman sitting across from her.

Nick had been standing in the corner of the interrogation room observing. "Was someone threatening you? Bribing you?" He wanted to know what had motivated this woman to do such a thing.

Brass had a stoic expression as he kept his 'bad cop' face on.

Monica looked at Sara. "Brandon."

Sara's tone was soft. "Who is Brandon?"

Monica's voice was barely a whisper as she realized that her carefully crafted world had completely unraveled. "I wanted out and he wouldn't let me. He told me that if I didn't pay him he'd kill me."

"He was your boyfriend?" Sara was a little confused.

Monica didn't say anything for a minute.

"Why didn't you go to the police?" Nick asked gently but firmly.

"You don't understand." Monica looked at Nick and then Brass and then back to Sara.

"Why don't you help us understand?" As much as Brass tried not to, he had a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He had heard just about every justification under the sun for why one person killed another.

Monica narrowed her gaze at Brass. Her tone was a bit sharp. "He was my pimp, ok. I wanted out. I got this job and enrolled in school to make something better for myself, but he didn't like it and he told me that if I didn't keep giving him what his cut had been that he'd kill me."

Nick winced slightly as her words drudged up painful memories.

"You could have come to the police." Sara knew that this woman must have had a hellish life, but it still didn't justify murder.

Monica just shook her head ruefully.

Brass hardened his expression. "So Vanessa had to pay the price."

"I didn't think anyone but Brandon would get hurt." Monica sounded truly remorseful.

* * *

With the case wrapped up and shift over, Nick and Sara stood in the locker room trying not to be obvious about stealing glances at each other. It was finally Sara who decided to say something. "Do you want to grab breakfast or something?" 

Nick just grinned at her. "I'd really like that." He quirked an eyebrow at her. "The diner?"

Sara looked a little mischievous. "I was actually thinking that I could cook for you."

Nick let out a soft chuckle as he considered what dessert might be. "So breakfast at your place then."

Sara nodded. "Yeah. Meet me there?" She felt a fluttering in the pit of her stomach.

"Yeah." Nick kept looking at her lips.

Not more than twenty minutes later, they were walking through the door into her apartment. As soon as the door had closed, they found themselves locked in a passionate kiss, breakfast all but forgotten as they stumbled down the hallway towards Sara's bedroom, leaving a freeform sculpture of discarded clothing on the carpet in their wake.

It wasn't until later when they were descending from the last waves of fading euphoric bliss that Nick remembered the purposed for which he'd come over. "We never did get breakfast."

Sara giggled. "I'm sorry." She leaned up and kissed him as she snuggled against his side. "I just thought an appetizer sounded a lot better at the moment."

Nick laughed. "Oh, so I'm an appetizer am I?"

Sara smiled. "Mmmn, and a really good one too."

* * *

**Just Under One Year Later:**

"I'm so glad you two came for Thanksgiving." Nick's mom Grace was gushing over Sara. She had begun to have doubts that Nick would ever get married, but Nick had surprised them all when he and Sara had eloped in the middle of August. This was the first time the entire Stokes clan was meeting Sara and the house seemed to be full as Nick and Sara visited with his mom in the kitchen.

Sara looked at Nick lovingly. She had never imagined a year ago that she would be married to him. "I'm glad we're here too."

Nick just grinned at her; she seemed to glow.

"Well I know you're a vegetarian, so I made you some tofurkey." Grace winced at the word.

Sara grimaced. "Tofurkey?"

Nick looked a little worried as he watched her pallor take on a greenish hue.

"What's wrong?" Grace looked worried.

Nick looked a little panicked as he looked at Sara as if he was asking her permission for something.

Sara just nodded and breathed out an entire sentence at the same time. "You tell her, honey, I have to go throw up now." She dashed out of the kitchen and made a beeline for the nearest restroom.

Grace looked at him for some sort of explanation. "What are you supposed to tell me, Nicky?"

Nick laughed a little nervously. "Sara's developed an aversion to meatless meat."

His mother just looked at him intently as she waited for him to continue.

He laughed again and then couldn't contain his grin as he told his mother what he and Sara had learned just a few weeks before. "We're having a baby."

_**The End**_


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